Hair Dye
by Blu Rose
Summary: There are a lot of things that people, upon becoming parents, might attempt to keep secret from their kids: a tattoo, a criminal record, or even something as simple as the fact that one dyes their hair. "Does this mean I can dye my hair now?" "I think it does." "No, it doesn't!" (T for language.)


**And now, here's a short lil' story about one of the more recent minor events to come out of Blue Exorcist as of late. Sort of related to another story, "A Slow Burn," but even if you don't read it, the worst thing you get off with is not knowing who a pair of characters are.**

 _Summary:_ There are a lot of things that people, upon becoming parents, might attempt to keep secret from their kids: a tattoo, a criminal record, or even something as simple as the fact that one dyes their hair. "Does this mean I can dye my hair now?" "I think it does." "No, it doesn't!"

 _Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Blue Exorcist series. Because boy howdy, she wouldn't be able to think of the stuff that's happening in the manga as she's writing this._

 **X-X-X**

For someone who years ago often expressed delight at the idea of moving away from home (and True Cross Town) in some desperate attempt to escape the weirdness that surrounded it, if his father wasn't visiting him in the dormitory of True Cross Academy's campus, Kazuki was visiting him at home with his roommate in tow. It was the latter case for today: a simple visit during the weekend that was supposed to help the teenage boy get his mind off of the tedium of school and training with enjoying his father's cooking, watching some TV, and pleading with a cat sidhe for temporary ownership of his old bed. Y'know, routine relaxation.

But it stopped being routine the moment Kuroba quickly walked into the bedroom, holding a hand over his mouth. From his wide-eyed look, he was uncharacteristically surprised about something. "So...I saw something...weird," the brunette spoke awkwardly, only pulling his hand far enough away from his mouth to be heard.

Kazuki, who had been lying on the bed with Kuro on his stomach, looked at him and arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"It wasn't _incredibly_ weird. Just a _little_ weird. But it was still pretty weird."

" _What_?"

"Like, it might blow _your_ mind, but it gave me a bit of a giggle."

Kazuki sat up and narrowed his eyes. "Just tell me what's got you all in a tizzy already."

"I saw your dad dying his hair."

The quarter-demon blinked. "What?"

"Even weirder, his hair was _white_. I mean, like, _entirely_ white. He was _dying his hair black_ ," Kuroba spoke slowly.

"...What?" Kazuki repeated, unable to wrap his head around it. While he couldn't exactly consider his father young—the man was a couple of years shy from being 40—he didn't think he was so old that he was already sporting white hair. "...No. You must've been seeing things."

His dormmate began to frown as he folded his arms across his chest. "I know what I saw! Your dad was—" The door behind him was kicked open by the man in question, effectively sending Kuroba flying towards the bed from the sheer force behind it. "Oh, speak of the devil."

Rin stood in the doorway with one towel wrapped around his head and another around his body, looking genuinely pissed off. He pointed a finger at Kuroba and shouted, "You! You can't just waltz into a bathroom without knocking on the door!"

Kazuki sighed as he looked at Kuroba. "You walked in on him while he was in the bathroom?"

"Anyone who doesn't lock the bathroom door and still expects privacy has no idea why locks exist. Besides, I _really_ needed to pee," the brunette said with a straight face.

"Son of a— Have you forgotten who's the guest here?! Have some proper manners!" Rin shouted as he continued to jab a finger in the teenager's direction.

"Just apologize or he might not give you dinner."

At the mention of food, Kuroba stilled. He glanced at his roommate before looking at his father. "I'm sorry I walked in on you, Okumura-san," he spoke in a stilted voice, unable to really feel sorry for something he thought was more to blame on Rin than himself.

Rin looked about as impressed as Kuroba's apology was sincere."That's the best I'm gonna get from you, isn't it?" He mumbled. After making a short growl of annoyance under his breath, he turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Well, I guess I've gotta go pee outside now," Kuroba muttered as he made to leave the room.

"Don't. That'll just piss him off more," said Kazuki. "Anyway, you see how wrong you were?"

The brunette looked over his shoulder at his dark-haired roommate and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You thought you saw white hair when you probably just saw the towel that he was wearing on his head."

"He didn't have a towel! His hair was white, and I saw him holding a box of a well-known brand of hair dye!"

Kazuki narrowed his eyes. "And how do you know about hair dye brands?"

"Never you mind how I know! You didn't get a look at his hair, did you? It's not like you could tell whether it was white or black."

The quarter-demon opened his mouth to fire back, but his mind moved quicker than his mouth. He supposed it was true—Rin had his hair hidden in such a way that Kazuki didn't see a strand of it. But that wasn't exactly proof.

Kuroba turned his back on his dormmate and said, "Whatever. Believe me or not. I'm gonna go outside and take a whiz," as he quickly walked out of the room.

"HUH?!" Kazuki practically flew off of the bed, forcing Kuro to fall on the floor as he ran out of the room to stop him. "Don't you dare! That's how property values drop!" He repeated a phrase his father once shouted at him when he tried to do the same thing in the past.

"Screw property values! I either pee _on the house_ or I pee _in the_ house!"

" _Pee?"_ Kuro asked, pondering what exactly went happened while he was napping.

 **X-X-X**

A while later, after evening fell, Kazuki entered the bathroom to wash up for dinner. After a quick shower and drying himself off, he started picking his clothes up off the floor to wear again—the consequence of not bringing a change of clothes with him. It was at that time that he took note of the small trash bin between the sink and toilet, and he remembered what Kuroba said about seeing his father with a box of hair dye. Leaning closer, he saw the flaps of a small, opened box inside of the bin.

"It can't be hair dye. It could've been aftershave, or toothpaste, or..." The dark-haired boy trailed off as his curiosity got the best of him. Ignoring the fact that he'd just washed himself clean, he took the box out of the trash bin. Along with the name of a brand that he'd probably heard during commercials, there was an image of a seductive-looking black-haired woman on it, with the phrase "midnight black" describing the color. "Oh my god. He _does_ dye his hair!" Kazuki gasped.

 **X-X-X**

Minutes afterwards, Kazuki approached his father while he was cooking in the kitchen. Rin looked away from the broth he was working on just long enough to notice him. "Hey. Here to make a request? Because I've already started on the stew."

"No, just...here to offer my help,"

Rin smiled brightly. "Oh, there's not much you could do... Think you could chop the peppers for me?"

"Sure..." Kazuki moved to the countertop, took up a knife, and began awkwardly cutting up bell peppers. It probably didn't help that Kazuki kept glancing over his shoulder at his father—or rather, at his hair for some sign of artificial coloring or a differently colored strand or two while he kept cutting. Now that he thought about it, had his father's hair ever looked even _slightly_ different from one point to another? To him, black was black, but colors came in so many different shades and hues that at one point or another, his dad could've used different dyes. The boy was so distracted that he ended up cutting one of his fingers. "OW!" Kazuki dropped the knife as he screamed out loud and began sucking his bleeding finger.

Rin immediately turned from what he was doing. "What, did you hurt yourself?"

"I-I'm fine. It already healed up," the teen said after observing said finger. The only things that suggested he'd hurt himself were the few droplets of blood on the counter, but quickly cleaned it up with his shirt.

"I appreciate the help, but maybe you should just go and wait outside?" His father suggested. "Wouldn't want you to have anymore accidents."

"I just let my mind wander. I won't get distracted again." And with that, Kazuki went back to chopping up the peppers and Rin went back to adding spices to the stew. Father and son fell silent as they focused on what they were doing, but the silence only lasted for a short while. "By the way, Kuroba said that he thought he saw you with white hair."

With their backs turned to each other, Kazuki was unable to see Rin stiffen for a moment. "Is that so?"

"He kept insisting that you dyed your hair, but I told him that it was probably just a towel."

"Of course it was."

Kazuki stopped chopping and looked at his father from over his shoulder. "Right. Because you, of all people, wouldn't dye your hair like some common delinquent after shooting down my pleas to go and get my hair dyed in middle school."

Rin did the same thing, frowning. "Oh, right! After the summer break in your first semester, you wanted to do it for some crazy reason all of a sudden."

"I just wanted to look less like you."

"What's wrong with looking like me?"

Instead of answering his father, Kazuki added, "So you would've let me dye my hair if I said I wanted to make it a more plain color like brown or midnight black?"

"Of course I wouldn't!" Rin exclaimed in the same breath as an exasperated sigh. He ignored the use of a particular shade of black in favor of asking, "And why would you die your hair black? It's black already."

"I don't like this particular shade. It makes me look just like you."

"Again, what's wrong with that?"

Kazuki finally put down the knife and whirled around to fully face his father. "Okay, that's enough. I know that you dye your hair, old man!"

"What're you talking about?" Rin asked as he went back to tending the stew.

"I found the box of dye that you used earlier."

"What even makes you think that it's mine?"

"You're the only person who lives in the house! Who else would it belong to— _Kuro_?!" Kazuki snapped as he shoved his father from behind. "Be honest and fess up!"

"Hey, watch it! That's how accidents happen!" The older man exclaimed after almost touching the oven.

"I'm not gonna judge you! Lots of old people dye their gray hairs once they're embarrassed enough, I'm sure!"

A small vein popped up on Rin's forehead before he whirled around to face his son. "What did you say?!" He snarled. "I don't _have_ any gray hairs!"

"Then what's with the hair dye?" The Okumura men looked at the entrance into the kitchen and saw Kuroba standing there, holding the same empty box that Kazuki had seen in the bathroom. "Who dyes their hair such a plain color if it's not a matter of gray hairs? Or in your case, white hairs."

"Don't go digging through my garbage, you snoop!" Rin shouted as he pointed at the brunette, who just looked indifferent.

"Aha! So you admit that it's yours!" Kazuki exclaimed, smirking as if this was a bigger deal than his father dying his hair.

Rin screwed up his mouth. "Arrrgh...! Look, can we talk about this later? I still have dinner to make..." He said as he started shoving Kazuki out of the kitchen.

"Hey! Wait a minute! This is important!" His son insisted as he tried to push back. Of course, his father had the superior strength, so his efforts may as well have been a gentle breeze. Kazuki ended up being used to shove Kuroba back as they were both pushed out of the kitchen. When Kazuki attempted to go back in, his father not only shut the door into the kitchen, he locked it. The sight of it amazed him. "He...locked the kitchen door. He _never_ locks the kitchen door!" Once he got over his shock, he began to knock on the door at rapid speed. "Open up, you bastard! Stop hiding like a coward and face the truth!"

Kuroba, who had moved over to the couch to watch TV, gave his roomie a half-lidded stare as he kept it up. Finally, he raised his voice, saying "Will you knock it off, Akumura? You can grill him all you want at dinnertime." Kazuki finally stopped and went to the couch, too, though he spent most of his time glowering and glaring at the wall instead of the TV.

 **X-X-X**

" _Yay! It's dinnertime~!"_ Kuro cheered moments later when the family plus one guest sat down to eat the meal. _"Thanks for the meal!"_ the cat sidhe chirped before he began to eat from the bowl of rice set on the table for him. After swallowing the first mouthful, he took a look at the humans sitting at the table. Kazuki and Kuroba were staring at Rin with a lukewarm glare and an indifferent stare respectively, while Rin appeared uneasy as he sweat a bit. They kept those expressions even while eating. _"Why's everyone acting so weird? Did something happen?"_ That's what he got for sleeping the afternoon away.

Eventually, Kuroba spoke up, "So, are we gonna talk about the hair dye or just keep staring at each other?"

"Yes. Let's talk about that," Kazuki said in a stern tone, his expression unchanging.

"What's there to talk about?" Rin spoke in a relaxed tone that certainly didn't reflect in his expression while he kept his head bowed and his eyes trained on his food. "I dye my hair. Everyone does it. Your mother did it."

"Mom? Wait, don't try to change the subject! Is your hair naturally white like Kuroba says it is?"

"I mean, we won't judge you if it is. I mean, everyone goes through phases, Akumura-san," said Kuroba before slurping some soup.

"Don't call me that!" The lone adult at the table snapped before he went back to talking calmly to his son. "My hair has been unnaturally white since I was about your age, give or take a year."

"Unnaturally?" Both boys asked at the same time.

"So you _did_ dye your hair, you hypocrite!" Kazuki exclaimed.

"Were you a teenage delinquent or just desperate to stand out?" Kuroba asked.

"Neither! I didn't _dye_ it! It just...turned white. Completely. Because... _reasons_ ," Rin answered, the volume of his voice going from loud to just barely audible.

"Reasons? What, did someone dare you?" His son's dormmate continued to ask questions, looking genuinely curious now.

Kazuki gasped in an overdramatic way. "This is a _demon_ thing, isn't it? As if the teeth, and the ears, and the tail weren't bad enough, now my hair's gonna go white!"

"Are we not counting the blue flames that can incinerate anything? Anyway, you were the one who said you wanted to dye your hair back in middle school."

Before Rin could demand why the brunette was spying on them, Kazuki continued the conversation, completely ignoring his father now. "I wanna look different from my dad, not look like an anime character!"

"Well, that would make you look different. Plus, you're kinda already an anime character with how your life's going."

"If I had to have a weird hair color, I'd rather be a redhead like Aunt Shura, or maybe a blonde..."

"It's exotic, not weird! And kinda hot."

"There _is_ something attractive about blue-eyed blondes."

"And with _your_ looks, you might be able to pass off as a foreigner."

Kazuki smiled as his eyes lit up, totally forgetting what started the conversation to begin with while his father glared at the two boys. "Really? You think so?"

"I could see you as a platinum sakura."

"I have no idea what that means, but that sounds kinda cool."

Rin finally had enough of being left out of the conversation and slammed his palm on the table, avoiding breaking the damn thing, but scaring the crap out of Kuro. "Enough! Your hair's not gonna turn white! ...Maybe! ...Probably not!" When he realized he was just digging himself deeper into a hole with the likelihood of what happened to _him_ happening to Kazuki, he said, "Look you're not dying your hair unless you have _good_ reason for it. End of discussion. So let's shut up and eat."

And so silence fell over the table...for about a minute. Then Kazuki said, "Does this mean I can dye my hair now?"

"I think it does," Kuroba spoke with his mouth full of rice.

"No, it doesn't!" Rin hissed.

"You said I could do it unless I have a good reason for it and I do: individuality," his son argued with a straight face.

"He's gotta stand out and be his own person," his roommate added.

Rin groaned and held his hand over his eyes as he grumbled, "Seriously, what's wrong with looking like me?"


End file.
